Continuous railway crossing



Jan. 10,' A1928. 1,655,521

f c. SPAHAR, sR

CONTINUOUS RAILWAY CROSSING C. SPAHR, SR

CONTINUOUS RAILWAY CROSSING Jan.

Filed Auz.10, 192'? 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Jan. 10, 1928.Y

UNITED STATESv PATENT ori-f1-crz'.A

CHARLES SPAHR, sn.,or ALGIERS, LOUIsIANA.

ooNfrINUoUs 'RAILWAY' CROSSING.

Application filed August 10, 1927*'.l Serial No. 211,997.

This invention relates generally to kimi proveniente in railway crossings butspecifi Still another object is to provide means for i conveniently removing or replacingl lsaid filler member in the event of injury thereto.

lith these general Vobjects in view, to-A Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially through the filler member of Fig. 1 to illustrate the mounting of body portion of the device between the main and guard rails.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged side elevation of the device; and

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the same.

In practically all railway crossings, at junctions or the like, it is and has been the practice to join the intersecting rails so that a gap is provided therebetween for theA passage of the flange of Aa wheel, and in view of the presence of this gap considerable injury is likely to occur to the rails due to the contact therewith of a wheel in its passage thereover.

In order to cure this defect, I propose to provide means for bridging said gap in order to providea continuous surface for the passage of the wheel and at the same time mount said means at an intersecting point so that the same may be deflected out of the path of the flange of a wheel during its pas sage through the intersection.

Referring now to Figure 1 of the drawings, ylet 5 denotethe main rail of an inter-5r 'section and V6 thefusual guardrail, their dis l position being such; as toprovide continuous passages 'r and 8 between the vsame and ar-` ranged at right angles with each other.f

Thus a v`wheel travelling in the direction Vof the arrow will contact Vthe main rail 5-i1ndride over the gapiormed in passage 8, while its flange .willfridein the passage 7.v Similarly a wheel traveling at yright anglesA to the Y first-mentioned wheel will bridge the gap in the passage 7, its flange riding'infthe vpassage 8. These conditions being true for each intersectiomand hence Figure 1 may be considered as a typical example thereof.

The device forming the subject-matter lot thisv application comprises a body portion 9 having upwardly directed side membersl() and 11, said body portion being of suitable size, and formed to' snugly fit between the websbt the main and guardvrails .hand 6 andalso betweenv the top` and bottom flanges ot said rails, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

two of my devices willbeinstalled `at each intersection, and as shown in Fig. vljthe bases of the body portions are forwardly extended, as indicated at 12, and then beveled, as at 13, to form a snug lit. It will of course, be understood that the Side members 10 and 11 preferably terminate flush with the side edges of the top flanges of the rails.

It is` manifest that a wheel traveling in the direction of the arrow in Fig.v 1 must ride over ythe gap 8 which I have bridged with a member 1st. However, before said wheel reaches said member, a similar meniber mounted in the passage 7 will be contacted by the flange et said wheel and hence it becomes necessary to provide means for the temporary removal of said member 15. To this end each'of said side members 10 and 11 'are provided with horizontally alined i apertu-res 16 and lfor the reception of trunmons 18 and 19 carried by each of said members 14 and 15 and in view of this ar angevment said members may be rotated in either direction and in either case their Contact by the flange of a wheel results in their removal from the path thereof'. vIn order to restore each of said members 14 and 15 to their original positions, I have provided resilient means in the form of a spring 20, one end thereof'being.secured to the abut- Utl nient 21 of the body portion 9, while the other end is preferably attached to a linl; 22 joined to the respective members 1li and l5.

In mounting the devices between the main and guard rails it is only necessary to insert the body portion just beyond the point where the guard rail teminates, whereupon they are slid to the intersection until the beveled portions 13 abut. Bolts 23 and 24, or other suitable Jfastening' means may then be passedthrough the apertures 25 and 26 in lsaid body portions of the devices to securely 'tasten the same in position.

lVhen the devices are to be removed it is only necessary to remove said'bolts and in the event a repair or replacement `is to be made therein the movableparts thereof may be i'eadily disassembled by withdrawthe screws 27 and 28 thus freeing the side member ll and permitting the removal ot the members le and l5. The point o't separation between said body portion 9 and the side member ll is indicated at 29 in Fig. 3 and by preference a mortise joint 30 is-pio vided to assure a positiver fitting between the parts and to assure a realignment oi the Y apertures l@ and 17,

From the foregoing it is apparent that one of the members 14C and 15 always bridges the gap between the main and guard rails and that its companion is adapted to be tilted or rotated by the flange of a wheel,

depending of course upon the direction inv which said wheel is travelling.

While the present is a disclosure or' the preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto, as various changes in the minor details of construction, proportion and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or' the invention as defined in the appended claims.

`I claim:

l. A device of the character described .f

comprising a body portion adapted to be removably inserted between the main and guard rails of a railway crossing and einbodying upwardly directed side members and l a filler member rotatably mounted between and extending above said side members and adapted to bridge the gap between the top fili flanges ot' said main and guard rails7 one of said side members being removably con- Vnected to said body portion and yieldable means connected to said filler member for restoring the same to its normal position after depression by the ange of a wheel.

ln testimony whereof' I affix my signature.

oi-rris. sienne, se. 

